Everyone's listened to a song that reminds them of something else. 'Start' with the 'Taxman' bassline and quite a few other Weller songs! I think it's a natural process for songwriters to base a new song upon things that are already out there, knowingly or unknowingly, so I thought I'd start this thread.

The first one isn't an obvious one, so I hope you spot it. There's a Bunny Wailer song called Bide Up from his first solo album Blackheart Man, which I believe influenced the Selecter's They Make Me Mad. Listen to the melody Bunny sings at 0:30-0:45 where the music breaks down a bit jazzy:

- THEN check out Selecter's 'They Make Me Mad' where Pauline sings at around 0:35-0:49 'now that things have changed, do I make my mind up for myself?'... no doubt it's the same melody but a bit faster.

Interestingly enough, in her autobiography Pauline mentions her friend Lawton Brown playing the Bunny Wailer album to her - and he co-wrote They Make Me Mad._________________Piano music page on Facebook:

I read an interview with Ray Davies recently in which he talked about a Damon Alburn track that had a big chunk of one of his songs in it. Davies was saying he'd like to be paid but I think he knew Damon's lawyers would say it was a tribute and not stealing.
Kevin Rowland allowed himself to be very influenced by Werewolves of London when he was writing One of Those Things (from Don't Stand Me Down) and was forced into handing over writing credits.
In the 90s Elastica really copied Wire and Teenage Fanclub really copied Big Star and in both cases the bands became friends_________________I got one art O'level it did nothing for me

Posted:
Sun Jul 15, 2012 7:35 am

ImaniToo Hot

Joined: 26 Apr 2008Posts: 1617
Location: Bradford

Post subject:

Harry wrote:

I read an interview with Ray Davies recently in which he talked about a Damon Alburn track that had a big chunk of one of his songs in it. Davies was saying he'd like to be paid but I think he knew Damon's lawyers would say it was a tribute and not stealing.
Kevin Rowland allowed himself to be very influenced by Werewolves of London when he was writing One of Those Things (from Don't Stand Me Down) and was forced into handing over writing credits.
In the 90s Elastica really copied Wire and Teenage Fanclub really copied Big Star and in both cases the bands became friends

I can hear the Ray Davies influence in some of Damon Albarn's songs and the way he sings, I wonder which song it was? The most 'original' artists are usually pretty open about the fact that they'll take ideas from other songs and put their own touch on it.

Everyone's listened to a song that reminds them of something else. 'Start' with the 'Taxman' bassline and quite a few other Weller songs! I think it's a natural process for songwriters to base a new song upon things that are already out there, knowingly or unknowingly, so I thought I'd start this thread.

The first one isn't an obvious one, so I hope you spot it. There's a Bunny Wailer song called Bide Up from his first solo album Blackheart Man, which I believe influenced the Selecter's They Make Me Mad. Listen to the melody Bunny sings at 0:30-0:45 where the music breaks down a bit jazzy:

- THEN check out Selecter's 'They Make Me Mad' where Pauline sings at around 0:35-0:49 'now that things have changed, do I make my mind up for myself?'... no doubt it's the same melody but a bit faster.

Interestingly enough, in her autobiography Pauline mentions her friend Lawton Brown playing the Bunny Wailer album to her - and he co-wrote They Make Me Mad.

There's an interview Pauline did with The Quietus from November 2017, where she talks about her favourite albums. Lo and behold:

"Lawton also played me Bunny Wailer’s Blackheart Man. He suggested we try and play ‘Bide Up’. We gave it quite a few goes but we never managed to nail it, but somehow it metamorphosized into ‘They Make Me Mad’, a song which we did on The Selecter’s first album."